Bicycles in Old Time Radio Collection

The concept of the open road is probably the most culturally significant part of the American mindset. It may be rooted in the cowboy mythos of the cattleman driving his heard across the wide-open prairie, or simply the motion of a seemingly endless frontier to the West. The American psyche demands that when we have the desire to go somewhere, all we need to do is get into our car and go.

Most of us get our first taste of freedom not behind the wheel of a car, however, but astride a bicycle. The technology of the bicycle predates that of the automobile, but only just. The developments which led to bicycles in the latter part of the nineteenth century were vital to the rise of the car at the turn of the twentieth. These developments included lightweight but rugged steel frames, drive chains, tension-spoked wheels, pneumatic tires, and ball-bearings. Some of the earliest smooth paved roads were built to accommodate bikes before cars became an everyday sight.

There was a huge "bicycle craze" sweeping America at the turn of the twentieth century, which is romantically described on Then and Now. When assembly line manufacturing and cheap gasoline fuel became widely available, the bicycle was largely relegated to the status of children's toy, at least in America. The most popular motor vehicle in the world is the Honda Super Cub motorcycle with 60 million units sold over the years, and nearly 35 million Toyota Corollas have left the factory, but China's state-owned Flying Pigeon has produced more than 500 million bikes. There are approximately one-billion bicycles in use, worldwide. Captains of Industry tells the tale of John North Willys who got his start in the bicycle industry and went on to found the company which would develop the iconic Willys-Overland Jeep for American Forces before WWII.

A sure-fire way to attract young listeners to a radio show is to hold a bicycle give-away promotion. It worked for Wheaties on Jack Armstrong the All-American Boy and Challenge of the Yukon. Sponsor Skelly Oil used Captain Midnight to push their line of bicycle tires sold by Skelly Service Stations (note to today's youth, a "Service Station" was a business establishment which took care of cars and their drivers and it was quite common for service station attendants to help kids fix their bikes, today gas stations make their profits by selling over-priced gasoline and underpriced 48-ounce cups of soda pop).

Because of the close association between bikes and kids, there is little surprise the many of Henry and Homer's schemes on The Aldrich Family revolve around their bicycles. Nephew Leroy is so desperate to put a twenty-dollar motor on his bicycle that he rents his bedroom to strangers on The Great Gildersleeve. It is not just kids, Peg hatches a plan to sell 2,000 packs of garden seeds so that she can win a tandem ("bicycle-built-for-two") on Meet the Meeks.

In terms of energy consumption versus speed, the bicycle is probably the most efficient transportation device ever conceived. Physicists estimate that 99% of the energy expended at the pedals is expressed as forward thrust at the rear wheel, and the calories required to fuel a bicycle rider is minuscule compared with automobile fuel. This makes bicycling an incredibly practical form of mass transportation, a fact not lost on the League of American Wheelmen on the Riding High music program promoting bicycle riding during the Great Depression.